Quinn, Brady meet over corned beef

November 23, 2010

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and his former Republican opponent looked to bury the hatchet of a nasty election campaign Tuesday. They met for lunch at Manny's Deli in the South Loop.

Gov. Quinn picked up the tab for the corned beef sandwiches he and Republican State Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, ate. Surrounded by news media, the two first chatted about their families. Brady asked, "What did your mother do?"

After lunch, the two talked politics. Brady said he doesn't think Quinn has support from the legislature for an income tax hike, which the governor called for during the campaign. "We talked about a tax increase," Brady said. "The governor and I have agreed to disagree."

Quinn stood by his position that a tax increase is necessary to fund education. "You know, I intend to carry that out and we'll work on matters where we do have agreement," Quinn said.

Quinn wouldn't say when he expects the legislature to take up a tax increase.

The governor also talked about his decision to re-hired his former chief of staff. Jerry Stermer resigned after violating state ethics rules. He admitted that he sent three emails related to the gubernatorial campaign from his state account.

Quinn said he asked Stermer to come back to his administration as an advisor.

"He made three inadvertent mistakes," Quinn said. "He didn't do it consciously, but he made a mistake three times with the emails out of 38,000 and he self-reported that. So I think he gets some credit for that."

Quinn says he'll discipline Stermer by not paying him for five days of work.